Geo quits from BDUK framework, attacks BT in the process

The Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) project is a huge part of the government’s efforts to bring superfast broadband access to the UK. Through the program, the government hopes to bring universal access of at least 2Mbps to all households and businesses in the country. Another goal of BDUK is to bring next-generation broadband access to 90% of all users by the year 2017 as well.

A huge amount from the national budget has been set aside for BDUK. One of the primary players in these projects is BT Broadband, which has been extremely aggressive over the past few weeks in deploying fibre and setting up Ethernet technology in various areas. However, there’s some trouble brewing behind the scenes with regards to the entire BDUK procurement process.

Geo Networks, which, up until recently, had been gearing to obtain next-generation broadband projects in the BDUK framework along with other networks. However, it has since pulled out, complaining that the odds were tilted unfairly in BT’s favour. The BDUK project has £530 million in funding to distribute for the upgrade of broadband infrastructure in rural areas. Moreover, Geo has also announced that they are pulling out of other procurements including the one being run by the Welsh government.

Geo chief Chris Smedley revealed in a statement that he believed BT is placing unreasonable restrictions on access to its ducts and poles, which are also known as Physical Infrastructure Access or PIA. ”Whilst pricing may have reduced for the current PIA product (still not far enough in our view), the real issue is that it can only be used for providing the final drop from local exchange to a residential broadband consumer’s house. PIA cannot be used for the far more costly task of crossing the long distances in rural areas to get to these remote communities (backhaul), making the idea of being able to build new fibre connections within them faintly ludicrous.”

Smedley also expressed his disdain at how the BDUK allocated funds, stating: “The gap-funding model is hugely favourable to the current supplier, as they have all the revenues on their copper network. Much of the UK still has only BT’s network, with other service providers using BT’s asset. BT has a perfect knowledge of the size of the market [and has] the least risk, so it can make the biggest offers of capital.”

Finally, Smedley also had some criticism to dole out on BT for not being able to offer a “truly open dark fibre product” to other Internet providers. “We don’t believe in virtual unbundling. Full unbundling is what we’re interested in, and in the fibre market that is dark fibre. We want, when BT is rolling out new fibre networks with public money, that they be compelled to offer a dark fibre product to the rest of the industry.”

Source – ZDnet